1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor module and a camera module mounting said semiconductor module.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, DVCs and DSCs, are gaining increasing sophistication in functions and features, such as camera functions added for taking images of persons and scenery. And in order for such products to be accepted by the market, they have to be smaller in size and lighter in weight, and for the realization thereof, there is a growing demand for highly-integrated system LSIs.
On the other hand, these electronic devices are expected to be easier or handier to use, and therefore the LSIs used in those devices are required to be more functionally sophisticated and better performing. Thus the higher integration of LSI chips is causing increases in I/O count, which in turn generates demand for smaller and thinner packages. To satisfy both these requirements, it is strongly expected that semiconductor packages just right for the high board density packaging of semiconductor parts be developed. In response to such expectations and demands, further thinning is required for a semiconductor module which is used to mount semiconductor components thereon.
For example, a camera module is one of such conventional portable electronics products and will be explained here.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a structure of a conventional camera module.
As shown in FIG. 8, a conventional camera module 1000 has a structure of a printed-circuit board 10, a lens barrel 46, and a cylindrical body 45 assembled together. On the printed-circuit board 10, CCD or CMOS image sensors 11 are mounted by wire bonding 14, and a casing 40 of a plastic material is disposed in such a manner as to cover the sensors 11.
And the cylindrical body 45 and the lens barrel 46 (casing 40) of the camera module 1000 are joined together with the cylindrical body 45 screwed into the threaded part on the inner periphery of the lens barrel 46.
Further, an IR (infrared) cut filter 22 is disposed between a lens 41, which is mounted to the cylindrical body 45 in a position above the printed-circuit board 10, and the image sensors 11, which are semiconductor devices mounted on the top surface of the printed-circuit board 10, so as to cut off infrared rays of excessively long wavelengths that may otherwise enter the image sensor 11.
There have been attempts at downsizing camera module bodies to be placed in portable electronics products, such as mobile phones. With conventional semiconductor modules, however, chip parts (passive components, such as resistors and capacitors, or drive IC chips), which are examples of package components to be mounted to drive the lens or the semiconductor devices (CMOS sensors), have to be mounted within a space defined and enclosed by the casing 40, the lens barrel 46, the cylindrical body 45 and the printed-circuit board 10 as shown in FIG. 8. In other words, the region where the chip parts can be mounted is only the space above the semiconductor devices on the printed-circuit board 10.
Thus, attempts at downsizing the camera module body have been unsuccessful because the chip parts have to be mounted on the camera module body by stacking them high in the aforesaid space or providing a wider area for their placement.